Need Shades

Joanna is quite the talker. Her new favorite phrase is "Need shades." We play with her sunglasses: I put them on her, she pulls them off, and then tells me, "Need shades," for me to put them back on. Now, she says her new phrase whenever she wants anything we have. She'll point to Oliver's yogurt and say, "Need shades!" She'll point to the freezer for a waffle and say, "Need shades!"

We're still waiting for her first steps! Here she is with her shades:

Oliver's Growing Vocabulary

It's official; Oliver now can say four words. In addition to "more," "Mum," and "Dah," Oliver now says, "Shhhh," for "shoe." "Shoe" came close to being his first word. Weeks ago, I'd begun saying, "Shoe!" every time I'd put mine or his on. He started repeating "Shhh" one day, but by the next day, he'd forgotten how to do it. Now, he's eager to say, "Shh!" every time he sees a shoe. He calls his socks "Shh," too.

Oliver understands a much longer list of words. He knows and (usually) listens to, "No!" He also understands the words microwave, fan, stairs, up, down, bye-bye, high five, stack (as in, "stack these toys"), good boy, good night sleep tight, milk, Cheerios, kiss, nose, piggies (toes), boop (poop), potty (which he learned yesterday), clean, peek-a-boo, monkey, and Eskimo (we say "Eskimo" for "Eskimo kiss").

First Word(s)?

As I mentioned in previous posts, Oliver calls me "Moooooom" and "Mah!" I'm still not sure if I should count this as his first word. He also says, "Mah!" for "more," but he really just means it as "give me." So, if he wants, say, the cup of water, he'll point to it and say, "Mah!" Or if he wants some of our dinner, he'll point and say, "Mah!" If he wants to nurse, he pulls on my shirt and says, "Mah."

I don't hear him say, "Mooooooom," for anything but me, though. Still, I'm not sure if he uses the word frequently enough to count it.

I'm very eager for him to start talking. And walking! Oliver, when will you start talking and walking?! We want to hear what you have to say!

Oliver Knows Mom

I haven't counted "Mooooom" as Oliver's first word because I wasn't convinced he knew what it meant. Every baby makes the sound "mamamamma" and "babababa" and "dadaddada." I haven't counted him repeating sounds I make, either. For example, I can say, "Mama," and he'll repeat it, but that doesn't mean he knows what it means. So, I don't count it.

Oliver started pointing to things with his index finger last week, and since then, we name everything he points to. He loves it! He points to the microwave all the time, and he points to his cup when he wants water. Anyway, we recently started quizzing him, and I was delighted to learn he'd retained so many words! Almost every time we say, "microwave," he points to it. I'd estimate he points to the fan when we say "fan" two-thirds of the time. For the first time today, Andrew said to Oliver, "Can you point to the Cheerios?" and he did!

The reason I'm blogging now is because Andrew came home and was playing with Oliver. He said, "Where's the microwave?" and Oliver pointed to it. Then, Andrew said, "Where's Mom?" and he pointed to me. Oliver knows that I'm Mom! I can't remember the last time anything meant so much. I teared up and clapped for Oliver. I'm Mom :)

Babble

Oliver's always been quite a babbler, but, lately, he's started really stringing different syllables together. He constantly says nonsense words like, "Manamba," and "Gabadakuh." And, of course, he accidentally says real words, too, like "boy" and "hi."

Today, I was trying to play ball with him again (he's not a fan), and he babbled, "bah." I tried to encourage him to keep saying it and showed him his ball. "That's right! Ball!" He would repeat "bah" to both me and Andrew, but, to him, it was just a fun game of repeating sounds. He wasn't actually saying "bah" referring to the ball. He does that with "mama," too. One day, he'll learn these sounds have real meaning to us!

We're Talking

I think Oliver has reached a major milestone to start talking: He now responds to us verbally.

It began with clicking. He was done nursing and started to click his tongue. I clicked back at him, and he clicked back. This went on for about 5 minutes. Andrew got home, and I showed him. The following morning, they had a clicking conversation, too.

Then came the piggy faces. Oliver made a funny face at me, where he scrunched up his face and kind of snorted. It looked just like a piggy face. I did that back to him, and he started cracking up. He made it back, and then I made it back to him. Now, making the piggy face is one of his favorite things, and he does it all the time. He's doing it now as he plays with his bucket next to me.

Yesterday, he was babbling as normal. He said, "Mamamamamam." I often repeat his sounds back to him, and he's usually fascinated by it. Yesterday, however, he repeated it back again to me. I clapped for him, and he got really excited. We said, "Mamamamam," back and forth a few times. After Andrew got home, I tried to get Oliver to say, "Mamamamam," again, but he couldn't remember how. I'll have to wait for him to make the sound and try again.

This is so exciting! It's so much fun to "talk" to my boy!